Sale 6 | Ep 104 | 11 Feb 2023
After presenting the West Bengal state budget on Feb. 15, the finance minister announced that the government would formulate a policy to grant eligible tea garden workers land rights.
- West Bengal presents its state budget with some attention to tea.
- Good demand in Cochin and Guwahati auctions
- Weather remains dry across India
India Price Watch
By Aravinda Anantharaman
The West Bengal state budget was presented on Feb. 15. West Bengal’s Finance Minister, Chandrima Bhattacharya, announced that the government would formulate a policy to grant eligible tea garden workers land rights. North Bengal, including Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri, has nearly 1.5 million people living on tea estates, demanding land rights. Tea estates here are leased to producers and companies by the government.
The budget has also considered the Indian Tea Association’s request for exemption from payment of cess and agricultural income tax for the next two financial years.
The budget has lacked in regularising the land status of small farmers who converted to tea planting after 2001. Without regularisation, these tea farmers cannot avail of any benefits available to the industry. Telegraph India
Tea Prices
An uneventful week at auctions. Sale 6 saw 8,467 tons of tea at the auctions, with 77% of the tea sold. Most of the tea on offer was CTC. The top selling grade was BP, followed by BOPSM and BOP.
Kolkata saw good demand for all tea grades. The Middle East and CIS countries were active for Orthodox tea, while exporters and local buyers were active for Darjeeling. Prices were similar to last week, except for Darjeeling, which saw some increase. Guwahati saw good demand with western India active. Sale volumes and prices were similar to the previous week.
Cochin continued to see good demand in the south, with a 93% sale volume. Dust and Fannings were the grades that topped the charts. AV Thomas and SupplyCo were active. Coonoor saw a reduced sale volume this week, but prices remained similar to Sale 5.
Weather & Climate Change
The weather has been largely dry across India. It’s expected to remain partly cloudy and dry over Assam—no rainfall expected in West Bengal, Kangra, and the Nilgiris.
Source: India Meteorological Department
Toklai Tea Research Institute, Jorhat, India
The Tea Biz weather report is made possible by the Tea Research Association of India.
Click to download the Tea Planters Calendar 2023.
